Old PABX

[Steve]

Does anyone have a manual for an old SDX PABX system? (The system, not the phones. Google produced phone manuals but not system manuals)

We have one at work with 2 lines and 4 extns, it also has a customer phone for taxis "lift reciever and press button" stylee. I want to change the pre-dialled number on it. But the phone itself has no (evident) settings on it, the number must be dialled at the PABX.

The number currently dialled on it is no good, because our company have recently put all our stores onto BT Embark, which means we now dial 9 TWICE for an outside line.

I say 4 extns, I think there are more sockets around the place, but only 4 phones in use.

 

[dannyboi2003]

Hey Steve,

Wow havent worked on an SDX system in yonks! Is there a model number on it? From past experience with Taxi phones its the phone itself you program with the number and not the phone system, have you opened up the phone as there may be a keypad inside it, again if the handset has a make/model number that would be useful.

On a side note doesnt your company have a maintenance contract in place for their phone systems, if so get them in to sort it out. Really tho its about time that old SDX got replaced, im kinda surprised they havent put IP systems into the shops, free calls between them then

All the best
Dan

 

[Steve]

im kinda surprised they havent put IP systems into the shops, free calls between them then

I dont get this either. The company has 3000+ branches, plus head offices and area offices. All the places have a LAN over broadband connection to head office. The alarm systems use this link to communicate with the monitoring station. (Webway) IMO they would have been better using the IP link for phones! They have put the phones on BT Embark. Know anything about it?

To be honest, this PBX is a bit of a throwback. The store is one of those places where its been changed loads over the years, and each time a new layer is added and nothings ever taken away. For example, there is loads of old aluminium in the roof space from old heating systems, now defunct. The data cabinet has a load of old equipment in it, long-since decommisioned (old "serial-port" style network sockets etc). The new additions have been put in this cabinet, but loose. So theres some cat5 wall sockets, lying on the floor of the cab, a 24-way cat5 switch, loose. Its a mess. I'll get photos.

This PBX, when it breaks, I suspect it will just be taken away and they'll fit normal phones, knowing the company I work for. As far as I know, they dont bother with them now. Certainly not in any new stores I've been in. Though when its decommisioned, they'll probably leave the big lump of scrap plastic fixed to the wall in the office

I think I'm just going to take the phone off the wall, because we're only too happy to phone a taxi for customers.

 

[Lectrician]

BT embark is a wider area version of BT featureline.

It is almost like having a virtual PBX across sites. It is not designed to be turnked onto another PBX really.

You pay rental per line, and these lines become 'extensions' on your 'virtual PBX'.

With BT featureline, calls between sites are FREE. I am not sure with embark, but would assume the same.

You get discounted line rental if you signup for a few years, and this is why it is pushed fairly hard through the sales dept - they tie you in for longer.

VoIP trunks used to link sites are best restricted to internet connections with a large bandwidth, or kept on it's own connection. For single calls it is likely fine, but if all these calls go to one destination, the bandwidth there would need to be very large.

 

[Steve]

To further pick your brains Lectrician, on Embark, can we dial an "extension" number for another branch of our business? I have noticed at another shop (where we had caller display), when another shop phoned, the number was 7 or 8 digits long. Could we dial this number to call them back?

Would this be cheaper than dialling the standard 11 digit BT number, preceeded by a 9?

They never gave us any intructions how to use Embark or its features. Just that we had to dial 9.

 

[Lectrician]

I am not too familiar with embark, I just know it is the big brother to featureline.

Featurline has three digit extension numbers that you use for free calls between sites, you dial the three digit number with no 9.

If you dial 9 and then the sites geographical number I believe you are charged as normal.

I would say with embark, you should be dialling the extension numbers to call other sites, and this would more than likely be free of charge (best to ask BT).

There is a featurephone available for featureline / embark. It shares the same footprint/design as the BT Pathway/Inspiration PBX featurephone, and I believe now also the Versitility. It has a screen and soft keys which allows you to use all the features of embark without remembering the codes etc.

Embark lines appear to come in analouge and digital varients - analouge designed for standard phones on sites, and the digital type for direct connection to a PBX.